On The Run DVD

Hong Kong Movie

Action Drama

88 Minutes

Multi-Lingual

What is Multi-Lingual DVDs?

亡命鴛鴦

Director: Alfred Cheung

Starring: Yuen Biao, Pat Ha, Chan Yuk-Lin

A police officer teams with an assassin to try and smash a powerful conspiracy.

Film noir flourished in American cinema in the late 1940's and early 1950's. The description of the genre comes not only from the look of most of the films (black and white, filled with shadows) but also from the mood of doom that hangs over the characters. No matter what they do, they are destined to come out on the losing side.

Considering the role fate plays in so many Hong Kong films, it's rather surprising that so few can actually be termed film noir. The most obvious reason is that black-and-white films are rarely made. On the other side of the coin, it seems that most protagonists are willing to accept the hand that fate gives them, but they are not going down without a battle. There's always a possibility that they will beat the odds.

But not here. Not only is the cinematography as dark and menacing as color photography can be, the atmosphere is thick with grim pessimism. A tragic air colors each of the characters.

Yuen Biao is a police officer whose ex-wife has an affair with the wrong man and pays with her life. The man orders assassin Pat Ha to do the hit. The man is, of course, Yuen Biao's superintendent. When the police conspiracy is uncovered, Yuen Biao is accused of the murder and ends up teaming with the assassin.

The concluding fight sequence contains no acrobatics and no elegance. Just brutality and a harrowing sense of realism.

DVD: List Price: US $20.95

Sale Price: US$8.95

Language: Cantonese / Mandarin

Subtitle: English / Traditional Chinese / Simplified Chinese

All Regions (Can be played on any DVD player in the world)

Letter Box

Rating: II - "May be Inappropriate For Children" (Broad rating may be roughly equal to an MPPA rating of "PG-13" to "R". In the late 1980s this rating splintered in two ratings: IIA and IIB) Films rated Category II may contain mild to strong violence, nudity that is usually not sexually oriented, explicit language and adult situations.